The Time We Have Left
by haloangel21
Summary: Prime. They lost something precious to them and can never have it back. Some things just simply weren't meant to be. Rated T for some depressing tones and loss. One-shot. AU...sorta.


**The Time We Have Left**

A _Transformers: Prime _one-shot by haloangel21

(1/13/14) Author's Note: Taking a break from **Playboy **and **Cat and Mouse** to focus on school, since it's starting in a few days! ^^' I've many to do both on here and dA, so I'll just drop this here for you all to read ~ if it isn't too much trouble…

**WARNING: **Don't read this if it's too depressing for you.

* * *

_"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do." _Those words replayed in his head over and over, and it had only been a few hours since it was announced.

"Arcee?" Optimus knocked on the door, awaiting a response from her. But instead, he was met with silence. He heavily sighed. He knew what she was feeling and how much it was hurting her. Even more than her previous partners' murders. He tried it again. "Arcee?" The Autobot leader asked a little louder this time.

And once again…silence.

Optimus shook his head sadly and slowly began to leave the area, realizing that she needed time. Time to heal. Just as he made to leave altogether, he faintly heard her voice for the first time in a short while, "C-Come in." From the sounds of it, he could tell she had been crying during this time.

He opened the door and sitting on the berth in the darkness, clutching her arms tightly, making herself into a little ball and resting her helm onto her knees…was Arcee. His sparkmate looked up at the light spilling into the room, forcing it to be gloomy in some parts as she tried to smile as hard as she could to reassure him that she was fine. "H-Hey."

"Arcee, are you…?" Optimus's spark sank at the teared crestfallen features her faceplates currently held. He hated seeing her like this.

"…A mess? Yeah," she sniffed, wiping a threatening tear from dripping with the back of her servo. "I'll clean myself up later. It's just that...just when I thought I could finally be happy, something, _something _always takes away the most precious things I hold close to my spark." She looked down at her chest. "Now there's nothing but the silence."

Optimus chose to walk further into their quarters and sat down next to her, using his large servos to stroke her arms as he pulled her into his side. "Arcee, what has happened was not your fault. Please do not blame yourself." He told her gently. "Perhaps Primus decided that it wasn't meant to be our own."

The royal blue femme scoffed, "Well, he sure took his time to let us know. Honestly, Optimus, I was so excited to become a parental figure. A mother, you know?" Then she shrunk back to her small ball size. "Then he goes to ruin everything. It's as if I'm bad luck. Like our sparkling hates me now."

He rested his hands on her shoulders instantly, forcing her to be spun around to face him in the eyes. When she looked away shortly after, a pair of fingers tilted her chin up and teary optics met sad ones.

"Don't say that. I am sure that if this sparkling were still alive, it would have been pleased to have you for a mother. You are strong. Fearless. Full of determination. Don't let a miscarriage bring you down," the red-and-blue armored mech cupped her face and rested his forehead crest upon her own. "It pains me to see you like this."

A forced exhale was given in response as she slowly ripped her face contact away from his and began protesting, "I know but…Optimus, you heard what Ratchet said. This sparkling's no longer growing. It's dead. It will never walk. It will never sleep. Breathe. See. Hear. Speak. Smell. Touch. We'll never hold it! All the things I wanted to with you to help it as it would get older!"

At that moment, her optics started misting up again, an action that re-ignited the worriedness in Optimus's spark. To his surprise, she grabbed the servo that rested on her arm and planted it on her chest.

"You feel that?! Huh?!"

"E-easy-"

"You feel that?!" Arcee vented, waiting for his answer, but nothing came out. Just as she had expected. "Nothing! It's empty! _Empty!_" She screamed. "Kaput! Gone!" The last word she spat out came as a break down as energon tears quickly streamed off her faceplates and she collapsed into Prime's large frame.

"Ssh, ssh, ssh," Optimus gathered her into his arms and slowly rocked her, trying his best to calm her down. "Sssshhhhh. Don't say anymore," he pecked her crest with a tender kiss. "Let it out. _Let it out._"

And let it out, she did.

For the next several hours into the night, Arcee spent it by sobbing out her grief and repeating "I'm sorry" over and over. For Optimus, he still held onto his sparkmate, humming a low lullaby to at least help her release her sadness after the unexpected tragic death of what would have been their first child together. He knew it wasn't the same one she grew up with, but hoped it would at least calm her down.

After a while, Arcee let her cries subside and Optimus decided to comfort her by saying, "Look at it this way, love. Now it will not feel any more pain. It will always watch over us, just as we did as your carrying progressed. It knows, somehow, that we loved it very much and would have done more if it were still alive."

The femme sniffed. "Yeah, that is true. Maybe Cliffjumper and Tailgate are up there now, somewhere…navigating it to where it needs to go." She sighed, producing circles with her finger on her mate's wide chest. "I'm gonna miss hearing that soft hum of its spark next to mine. It was so wonderful to listen to at night sometimes."

"Even better than my snoring?"

She smiled a little. "Oh, yes. Much better than your snoring."

Both of them quietly laughed, clinging onto each other as they slowly accepted the fact that the sparkling was not meant to be. "…Optimus?"

"Yes, Arcee?" He tightened his grip on her.

"…I don't think we should go for any more sparklings in the future."

This time, he glanced down at her small form, optics indicating that he was alarmed by her words. "…What?" His vocals were low; she could see how he didn't understand why she didn't want to make more sparklings.

"I'm not too sure if I'm ready for another loss, if Primus thinks it is," she explained. "Losing this sparkling in a miscarriage was too much for me to bear. I don't know how I can handle, if possible, another one."

"Arcee, maybe we shoul-"

"_Please_, Optimus," she begged.

He observed her facial expression and his spark expressed a pang of guilt upon seeing it. He knew he wanted sparklings and losing this one almost crushed him as well, but forcing her to do something that he wanted wasn't in his nature. Arcee had been through so much in her life. She shouldn't deserve to have another death on their heads.

He rubbed his optics tiredly with his other servo, exhaling his vents out softly. "Very well. If you wish it. No more sparklings from you and I."

Arcee twisted her mouth into a small grin, hugging him as best as she could. "Thank you, Optimus." When they unlatched themselves, Arcee started off by saying, "By the way, Ratchet told me what it was going to be - before the unexpected timing." Her voice suddenly dropped to a harsh whisper, her shoulders slumped down a bit as she looked away.

His hands brought her back to the present - and optics on his faceplates. He wore a sad smile that told her "_it's okay_" before tenderly kissing her forehead again. "What was it going to be?" He wanted to know. After all, per Arcee's wishes, Ratchet kept it a secret from his oldest friend.

Arcee's grin increased as she leaned into his right audio receptor and whispered the gender.

* * *

Just a small note here - I'm well aware of that the Transformers have frame types, but not genders. I know they have the same interface appliances and all. But I like to think that they do have genders so it can have some sort of comparision to the human world.

Why? Because it's fanfiction. There are a billion things we can do what we want with the characters and the whole universe. As long as it's in that same universe, but a bit more on the AU side.

-Halo


End file.
